Poverty in Russia grows faster than expected

The number of impoverished people in Russia has increased by 2.3 million and made up 22.9 million in one year, the Russian Federal Statistics Agency said. Many experts believe that official statistics does not reflect the real state of affairs and is very often undervalued. Therefore, it means that the number of the poor in the country grows much faster.

According to official statistics, an impoverished individual is a person, whose income is lower than the living wage. The level of the living wage is calculated by the state. This term virtually designates the limit enough for real physical survival; it is not the actual poverty line.

The number of people living close to this point has increased in Russia from 20.6 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 22.9 million in 2011. This is 16.1% of the entire population of the country. It is worthy of note that a year ago, the Russian Federal Statistics Agency was saying that the number of the poor in the country was decreasing.

The cost of living in Russia raised by 17%, which automatically increased the number of poor people. In the first quarter of the current year, the cost of living made up 6,437 rubles ($230). The inflation rate was quite high, whereas salaries in many regions of the country did not return to the pre-crisis level.

"The growing number of those living below the poverty line is connected with high inflation in the beginning of the year. The level of people's salaries and incomes was not growing much. The number of poor people in the country increased, but the level of people's income went down," Anton Safonov, an analyst with Investcafe said.

In May 2011, the real money income of many Russians decreased by seven percent. We didn't have such a serious reduction even during the peak of the crisis. The reduction during the first five months made up 3.7%.

The World Bank published a regular report on the economy of the Russian Federation. The report also pointed out the negative situation with poverty.

Vladimir Shabanov.